Green Pilgrim Jerusalem

Green Pilgrim Jerusalem team started its activities in 2011. In 2013, Green Pilgrim Jerusalem team organized “The First International Jerusalem Symposium on Green and Accessible Pilgrimage” at the Jerusalem International YMCA. One important outcome of the symposium was the understanding that Green Pilgrim Jerusalem and the Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem share common goals, and therefore decided to join forces and work together within the framework of Saint Lazare Holy Land.

Our Mission in Jerusalem is:

To welcome millions of pilgrims and eco-friendly travelers to the City of Jerusalem every single year

To promote the City of Jerusalem’s strategy for the conservation of our unique cultural, Biblical and natural heritage, alongside sustainable urban infrastructure and economic growth

To showcase sites of green pilgrim significance in the City of Jerusalem and its surrounds

To engage with faith leaders and communities and pilgrim tour operators to further promote tourism to the City of Jerusalem and its surrounds

To engage in a process of greening the hospitality and conference industry in the City of Jerusalem

To launch the Israel Chapter of the Green Pilgrimage Network

To initiate a process to create an Ethical Code of Conduct for the Public Domain for the City of Jerusalem

Meet the Green Pilgrim Jerusalem team

After years of leadership in the environmental movement, heading the work of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI), initiating and leading the Sustainable Jerusalem Coalition of social and environmental NGO’s in and around Jerusalem, Naomi Tsur took up office at the end of 2008, elected to the Jerusalem City Council and appointed Deputy Mayor of the City of Jerusalem, responsible for strategic planning, environment, historic conservation and public participation, as well as holding the Chair of the Healthy Cities’ and Arts & Sculpture Committees.

Before her term as Deputy Mayor, Naomi Tsur led many successful environmental campaigns, crowned by the fight to prevent urban sprawl into the Jerusalem Hills. After taking up office, she has led Jerusalem’s recycling revolution, integrating urban nature into planning major projects such as the Gazelle Valley Urban Nature Park and the Railway Park.

Since 2011, Naomi Tsur has been developing the Green Pilgrimage philosophy and stands today at the helm of the Green Pilgrim Jerusalem team.

Tsur left the municipality at the end of 2013 and has since focused on developing Green Pilgrim Jerusalem and ceating a new channel for green initatives in Jerusalem through the Jerusalem Green Fund.

Born and raised in Jerusalem, with an M.A. in Architecture and Town Planning from the Israel Institute of Technology, Osnat worked for several years as City Engineer of Eilat, member of the Sub-Committee for Regional Planning during the Israel-Jordan peace talks.

More recently, Osnat served as Head of the Division of Planning and Deputy City Engineer of the Jerusalem Municipality, where she supervised projects such as the Master plan for Conservation of the Old City, urban renewal, reduction in the disparity in infrastructure in East Jerusalem.

Osnat coordinated an action plan for the safeguarding of the Old City of Jerusalem, a World Heritage Site, in coordination with UNESCO. She is a consultant for the International Peace and Cooperation Center (IPCC) on the development of new residential neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.

Since 2012, Osnat heads the planning team for Green Pilgrim Jerusalem. Her main focus is the planning of pilgrimage routes along the major heritage sites, development of initiatives that involve local residents.

Avner was a Co-founder of `Oganim` (anchors) – a network that promotes organizational effectiveness through the promotion of profit, spirit and wellness at the same time. Avner Specializes in working with large groups to promote life giving and short term systemic changes in organizations and communities. Avner works with businesses, communities, government agencies and municipalities.

Avner is a social entrepreneur, one of the founders and former chairman of `Besod-Siach` (The Enigma of Dialogue), an NGO that promotes dialogue between groups in conflict within Israeli society. Avner is the initiator and chairman of “The Jerusalem Inter-Cultural Center“-an NGO that promotes equal and respectful co-living among the diverse communities of Jerusalem. By combining business aspects and social entrepreneurship, Avner promotes projects and businesses, together with Israeli, Palestinian and International partners.

In 2012, Avner joined the Green Pilgrim Jerusalem of the planning team. Alongside planning pilgrimage routes in the Judean Desert area , he focuses on the topic of local Bedouin hospitality, stregthening local economies and developes new and alternative experiences for pilgrims.

Jerusalem, the Holy City

For thousands of years, Jerusalem has been a major spiritual destination for people of faith. Down the ages, even through the map makers’ eyes, as you see in Bünting‘s clover map, Jerusalem was the centre of the world.

Jerusalem is the source and the home of the ULTIMATE soul, mind, body experience, offering the traveler many Heavens and one earth! Jerusalem harnesses the magic of the ancient and the divine, the narrative and the practices of sustainability and accessibility, pioneering technologies and infrastructure innovations, values which are rooted in ancient theologies.

Celebrate and experience the beautification of today’s Jerusalem
Jerusalem– the physical and spiritual destination for pilgrims for thousands of years- is unique in time and space. 21st Century Jerusalem appreciates our Divine inheritance, accepts our responsibility to evolve it as we would wish to find it, and has undertaken to be a green and sustainable city – environmentally, economically, socially. Experience the renewal and the beautification of this multi-dimensional, multi-sensory City.

Celebrate and experience OUR Jerusalem. Share the equitable sharing of the public domain by people of all faiths.

“Jerusalem is the house of the one God, the capital of two peoples, the temple of three religions and she is the only city to exist twice – in Heaven and on earth.” Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem- The Biography, 2011